Trying to re-live the experience!

It's been almost 4 months since our journey ended, the caravan has been sitting covered and forgotten (well, almost) at Dural, and we have all slotted back into our daily routines. At least we have summer and school holidays at the moment, but not for much longer. We decided to finally take the van out again over the Australia Day long weekend....and try and re-live the experience, but I guess a three day trip just doesn't quite match up against a 4 month trip. Oh well, no worries, it was fun.

We were very happy to see our old familiar mugs again. Can you work out which mug us for which family member?

First we headed up to Gosford for the boys to complete the third day of their sailing course. While they sailed (alone, no instructor on board!), Ayla, Cem and I hung about the neighbouring Olympic pool.

After the course presentation, we headed further north to Joy-Lynn and Bruces place at Bobs Farm on the Port Stephens peninsular. Extremely nice people, Oyster Farmers, who welcomed us wholeheartedly with afternoon tea and a very warm and friendly manner. It was lovely to stay on their 11 acre property and avoid the maddening holiday crowds closer to the coast. Ayla, Sol and I had been lucky enough to be invited up to Shoal Bay last week with Yve, Sarah and Harry. Thats why we came up here again, it was great, we enjoyed the beaches, climbing Tomaree Head, and we really wanted to show Cem and Kai. Heres our camp, Joy-Lynn and Bruce left the house open for us.

The weather forecast was completely wrong and we had great beach weather, it was hot!! We went back to Shoal Bay Beach, Little Beach and Samurai Beach. At Little Beach the kids jumped off the jetty again, despite being warned that there had been a shark sighting around the area earlier that day....

We boogie boarded down the sand dunes just off Nelson Bay Road. That was a hit! Photos don't quite capture the steepness of the dunes, but in the first photo you can see Kai way down the bottom which gives an indication.

Finally we spent a morning at Samurai Beach. What a different spot it was from last week. It was like a highway, you had to be careful of the passing traffic. Didn't pop up and say hi to Keith at the camp at the far end as I had intended, but we enjoyed the surf and the sand and the jumping.

We headed back on the Sunday pm to avoid the traffic, so glad we did, today (Monday - Australia Day) is rainy anyway, and glad we are not sitting bumper to bumper on the freeway right now. Nice little escape, Cem and I reckon we would have it all down pat the next lengthy trip we did......... we will see.

Here's a final photo of Ayla in the van.

Statistics

4 months, 118 nights, 5 states (theoretically) and 1 territory, 23 610kms travelled.

Here is the fuel (diesel) summary:

Date........Place......$/Lit...Litres......................Cost

9/06/2014 Sydney 1.548 61.......................$94.43
10/06/2014 Orange 1.639 48.14...................$76.97
11/06/2014 Bourke 1.699 153.1......................$260.12
13/06/2014 Cobar 1.689 34.13......................$57.65
14/06/2014 Wilcannia 1.79 49.16....................$88.00
16/06/2014 Tibooburra 1.755 76.93.................$135.01
18/06/2014 Camerons Corner 2.2 23.5............$51.85
21/06/2014 Leigh Creek 1.837 67.52............$124.03
21/06/2014 Copley 1.839 19.58....................$36.01
24/06/2014 Coober Pedy 1.739 18.72.............$32.55
24/06/2014 Coober Pedy 1.739 103.32............$179.67
26/06/2014 Erldunda 2.1 91.91......................$193.01
28/06/2014 Uluru 2.212 73.13........................$161.76
1/07/2014 Kings Canyon 2.33 42.92...................$100.00
6/07/2014 Alice Springs 1.799 75.12.................$135.14
8/07/2014 Alice Springs 1.799 95.45.................$167.90
9/07/2014 Tilmouth Well 2.25 27.98.................$62.96
9/07/2014 Yuendumu 2.489 16.23.....................$40.40
12/07/2014 Halls Creek 1.889 68.35...................$129.11
14/07/2014 Wyndham 1.75 75.41.................$132.00
15/07/2014 Wyndham 1.75 30.79......................$53.88
19/07/2014 Kunnunnara 1.949 66.7.....................$130.00
21/07/2014 Halls Creek 1.889 54.78...................$103.48
21/07/2014 Fitzroy Crossing 1.889 73.96.................$139.71
24/07/2014 Broome 1.769 76.49......................$132.25
30/07/2014 Broome 1.769 38.68.......................$68.42
4/08/2014 Broome 1.759 73.45........................$129.20
5/08/2014 Sandfire Roadhouse 1.968 58.2...........$114.54
6/08/2014 Port Hedland 1.679 86.73................$145.62
9/08/2014 Tom Price 1.789 67.27.....................$120.35
13/08/2014 Parabudoo 1.789 111.22..................$198.97
16/08/2014 Coral Bay 1.763 39.39.......................$69.45
20/08/2014 Exmouth 1.848 82.62..............$152.68
23/08/2014 Carnarvon 1.719 133.55...................$224.23
25/08/2014 Denham 1.779 177.9...............$183.56
29/08/2014 Kalbarri 1.79 63.62...................$113.88
31/08/2014 Leeman 1.559 49.74..................$77.54
1/09/2014 Perth 1.539 64.98........................$97.46
4/09/2014 Margereth River 1.619 70.91.............$114.81
5/09/2014 Augusta 1.569 41.43....................$65.00
8/09/2014 Pemberton 1.62 60.13......................$110.37
10/09/2014 Albany 1.569 53.97...................$84.68
12/09/2014 Albany 1.549 46.63.....................$72.81
14/09/2014 Lake Grace 1.554 70.37....................$109.35
16/09/2014 Esperance 1.619 76.83....................$121.32
18/09/2014 Esperance 1.619 105.11....................$165.97
19/09/2014 Norseman 1.609 38.05.....................$61.22
20/09/2014 Mundrabilla Roadhouse 1.89 60...............$113.4
20/09/2014 Nandroo 1.699 70.44......................$113.29
22/09/2014 Streaky Bay 1.619 40.39....................$65.39
23/09/2014 Port Lincoln 1.498 75.4..................$112.95
25/09/2014 Port Augusta 1.519 63.29......................$96.14
27/09/2014 Renmark 1.557 70.55..................$109.85
28/09/2014 Mildura 1.519 33.38............................$50.70
30/09/2014 Hay 1.559 62.37..........................$97.23
2/10/2014 Parkes 1.529 71.7...........................$109.69

TOTAL.......................3682.66........................$6287.96

3682.66 litres of fuel at the total cost of $6287.96 in 4 months. This equates to an average of 31.2 litres and $53.28 a day. Highest price diesel at Kings Canyon at $2.33/litre. Lowest price at Port Lincoln at $1.498/litre.


Here is the accommodation cost summary:

9/06/2014 Sals..........................................._
10/06/2014 Wanda Wadong......................._
11/06/2014 Bourke
12/06/2014 Bourke..............................$50.00
13/06/2014 Wilcannia.............................._
14/06/2014 Pincally
15/06/2014 Pincally.............................$50.00
16/06/2014 Tibooburra
17/06/2014 Tibooburra..........................$50.00
18/06/2014 Camerons Corner ...............$30.00
19/06/2014 Montcelino Bore ......................_
20/06/2014 Weetootla
21/06/2014 Weetootla ...........................$30.00
22/06/2014 Farina .................................$6.00
23/06/2014 Coober Pedy
24/06/2014 Coober Pedy ........................$50.00
25/06/2014 NT border .............................._
26/06/2014 Uluru
27/06/2014 Uluru
28/06/2014 Uluru
29/06/2014 Uluru ...............................$174.00
30/06/2014 Kings Canyon ........................_
1/07/2014 Tyler Pass ............................... _
2/07/2014 Alice Springs ............................_
3/07/2014 Alice Springs ............................_
4/07/2014 Alice Springs ............................_
5/07/2014 Alice Springs ............................_
6/07/2014 Alice Springs ............................_
7/07/2014 Alice Springs ............................_
8/07/2014 Tanami ......................................._
9/07/2014 Tanami ......................................._
10/07/2014 Tanami ..................................... _
11/07/2014 Tanami Wolfe Creek ........................_
12/07/2014 Halls Creek .............................._
13/07/2014 Wyndham
14/07/2014 Wyndham ................................$90.00
15/07/2014 Elquestro
16/07/2014 Elquestro
17/07/2014 Elquestro ................................$90.00
18/07/2014 Lake Argyle ................................. _
19/07/2014 Pernululu
20/07/2014 Pernululu .................................$50.00
21/07/2014 Fitzroy Crossing ............................ _
22/07/2014 Winjana ..................................$20.00
23/07/2014 Broome
24/07/2014 Broome
25/07/2014 Broome
26/07/2014 Broome
27/07/2014 Broome
28/07/2014 Broome
29/07/2014 Broome ...................................$245.00
30/07/2014 Dampier Penin ...........................$40.00
31/07/2014 Kooljaman
1/08/2014 Kooljaman ................................$150.00
2/08/2014 Middle Lagoon
3/08/2014 Middle Lagoon ............................$102.00
4/08/2014 Road side stop ................................ _
5/08/2014 De Greys ........................................ _
6/08/2014 Port Hedland ................................... _
7/08/2014 Albert Tognolini ................................. _
8/08/2014 Albert Tognolini .................................. _
9/08/2014 Paraburdoo
10/08/2014 Paraburdoo
11/08/2014 Paraburdoo
12/08/2014 Paraburdoo
13/08/2014 Paraburdoo .....................................$125.00
14/08/2014 Coral Bay
15/08/2014 Coral Bay
16/08/2014 Coral Bay ......................................$158.00
17/08/2014 Kurrajong
18/08/2014 Kurrajong
19/08/2014 Kurrajong .......................................$158.00
20/08/2014 Minilya Creek ...................................._
21/08/2014 Red Bluff .........................................$40.00
22/08/2014 Carnarvon ........................................$55.00
23/08/2014 Shark Bay
24/08/2014 Shark Bay......................................... _
25/08/2014 Whalebone ........................................_
26/08/2014 Carrarang ....................................... $10.00
27/08/2014 Galena Bridge ...................................... _
28/08/2014 Kalbarri ...........................................$52.00
29/08/2014 Cliff Head .......................................... _
30/08/2014 Moore River ........................................... _
31/08/2014 Perth Nicoles
1/09/2014 Perth Nicoles ..........................................._
2/09/2014 Pinjarra ............................................... _
3/09/2014 Busselton .............................................. _
4/09/2014 Rosa Glen ................................................ _
5/09/2014 Boranup .............................................. $21.00
6/09/2014 Reelemin
7/09/2014 Reelemin
8/09/2014 Reelemin ............................................$40.00
9/09/2014 Fernhook Camp .................................... $21.00
10/09/2014 Albany
11/09/2014 Albany ............................................... _
12/09/2014 Porongurup
13/09/2014 Porongurup ........................................... _
14/09/2014 Kulin ................................................... _
15/09/2014 Mulginup ............................................. _
16/09/2014 Cape Le Grand
17/09/2014 Cape Le Grand .................................... $51.20
18/09/2014 Norseman .................................................. _
19/09/2014 Madura Pass ............................................. _
20/09/2014 Nandroo .................................................. _
21/09/2014 Streaky Bay ........................................ $41.00
22/09/2014 Elliston ............................................... _
23/09/2014 Port Lincoln ........................................... _
24/09/2014 Whyalla ............................................. $10.00
25/09/2014 Cadell
26/09/2014 Cadell ............................................... _
27/09/2014 Mildura ............................................. _
28/09/2014 Yanga .................................................. _
29/09/2014 Hay ..................................................... _
30/09/2014 Griffith ................................................ _
1/10/2014 Forbes .................................................. _
2/10/2014 Forbes ................................................... _
3/10/2014 Bowenfels ................................................. _
4/10/2014 Dural ........................................................ _
5/10/2014 HOME!!!

TOTAL................................................................$2009.20

$2009.20 accommodation charges over 118 nights equates to an average nightly cost of $17.00 which is $3.40 per person! Can't complain about that! (admittedly the caravan is a considerable cost which must also be factored in)

We do not consider food costs in our statistics as these exist whether we are travelling or not.

Other expenses included mechanical, entries, attractions, tours.

Country towns of NSW

Over the mighty Murray at Mildura and we are back in NSW..... it feels good, surprisingly!
We camped again on the Murray at Bottle Bend Conservation Park. The river was again, like in Cadell, quite spectacular. We followed the Murray up to the Murrumbidgee, spending several night on it as well. Also beautiful. Previously never really appreciated the significance and focus and lifeblood that these rivers are to these areas. Over the next week we did a bit of a tour of some NSW country towns and the two things that hit me most were 1. how friendly and welcoming the towns were and 2. how reasonably priced, actually cheap, actually often even FREE where you would expect to pay something, everything seemed. I guess we are seeing this relative to WA. Here's the NSW country town tour inventory:

BALRANALD
The amazing and very interesting Yanga National Park. Camped there on the Murrumbidgee (no entry or camping fee cost which itself is astounding) Yanga was originally a huge sheep station for over 150 years years employing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people, and at one point being the largest operating property in the southern hemisphere. Only recently has it become a National Park (around 2007) when the last owners left it to NPs for the public. The focal points of the park are the Homestead on Yanga Lake and the Woolshed on the Murrumbidgee. Both are amazing, the homestead particularly so because it is literally frozen in time; it was left to National Parks with absolutely everything in it, nothing removed, all furniture, books, documents, kitchen, pictures, the lot. And incredibly, you just pick up a key (and audio) from the office and wander at leisure from room to room and through the gardens, locking up behind you. What a privilege it was.

The woolshed.

The boys at Yanga Lake (at the homestead) and Ayla at the Murrumbidgee (at the woolshed)

HAY
What a welcoming and friendly town. Firstly council provide a lovely area on the Murrumbidgee River, Sandy Point, a short walk from the centre, for people to stay with self contained vehicles, and then they offer free bicycles from the visitors info centre. We took them up on both of these and had a lovely morning cycling along the river and through town and up to the Old Gaol Museum.

The Gaol Museum opens your eyes to another dark side to Australias history. The gaol has had numerous functions over its lifetime (gaol, POW camp, hospital) but also including NSW child welfares 'maximum security institution for girls' or literally a place of punishment for girls (13-18 years) transported from Parramatta girls home.

Before we headed out of Hay we had an excellent counter lunch (flathead) at the pub for the dirt cheap cost of $10 each.

GRIFFITH
Another council-provided free camp for self contained recreational vehicles on the lake in Willow Park and walking distance from Banna, the main street of town. Why would anyone stay at a caravan park? There was only two other vehicles there. The Aquatic Centre and City Park were the hits for us here, as well as the bakery where I continued my very own apple turnover tour of country NSW.

FORBES (AND PARKES)
Another one. Thanks again council. Right on Forbes Lake and a short walk over the bridge into the centre of town. This one is quite crowded with lots of other vans. One (I) is very inclined to spend lots of money in town when the town is so welcoming and generous to us. Parkes is only 30 odd km distanced from Forbes and we spent the morning at The Dish near Parkes, which, since my last visit has become a great educational as well as entertaining facility. It was also a very nice surprise to coincidently bump into Kai's friend Chris and family out the front. Reminded us we are now very close to home.

Forbes is the home to the Aussie Biscuit factory which is run by the House of No Steps, an enterprise providing business and job opportunities for people with disabilities. We did a tour of this delightful factory with its colourful workers and stocked up on lots of biscuits!

BOWENFELS
Here we are, back in Bowenfels, where we were Day 1, four months ago, with Susan, Stephen and Spike. We have done a full circle. The kids have been talking about Spike for the last 2 days, 'when will we be at Spikes', 'how long now till Spike', and now we are here, enjoying the comforts of a home. The final short leg back down the mountains to Sydney, Wahroonga, a drive we are quite used to, will eventuate a bit later on today and that will wrap up our 4 month journey, and we will have to start adjusting to life back home, with only the memories (and this blog) of the journey remaining. I guess also a fair amount of red dust, we will probably come across that in various parts of the car and van for months, probably years, to come.

If anyone is interested (perhaps planning a similar journey?!), we will be posting a statistics page outlining kms, petrol, $s etc, so stay tuned.......

Eyre Peninsula and a quick drive through SA

We headed around the perimeter of the Eyre Peninsular which forms the eastern end of the Great Australian Bite. It looked like there was a lot of very nice spots but we only stopped at a few. First Cape Labatt which is the home of the largest Sea Lion/Seal colony in Australia (bigger than Kangaroo Island). This was quite something to see, at least 50 of them lazing around on the sand, on the rocks, waddling from one place to the other, mucking around and chasing each other, babies suckling from their mum. We could have spent much longer just watching their antics through our binoculars, however....the kids were getting impatient... It was well worth the trip out and as usual these photos don't seem to portray how impressive it was.

Some rocks called Murphy's Haystacks and breakfast at one of our rough camps........

By this stage the kids are starting to get fairly travel weary Cem and I can feel it. We head down to the bottom of the peninsula to Coffin Bay National Park. More emus here than we have seen all trip (except for the flock of 10 in our first week in western NSW). More beautiful coastline and we realised you don't have to travel all the way to WA to get turquoise ocean.

After all the National Parks and coastline and nature, we enjoyed the 'urbanity' of Port Lincoln, especially our city lights view from the 'Recreation Vehicle approved' free campspot at Billys Lights Boatramp. We really have found some great places to stop for the night.

Port Lincoln is apparently 'the seafood capital of Australia'. We tried our luck again off the main jetty, encouraged and coached a bit by a couple of local highschool kids, all to no avail. We gave up and went and bought a load of fresh seafood from the seafood shop.

Heading back up the east side of the Eyre Peninsula, through Whyalla and Port Augusta. They seem like industrial towns. We didn't see much of them but had a night in Whyalla at the local football club which opens their doors to campers and provides use of their toilets and HOT showers. Ahhh. Of the little we saw in Whyalla, by far the best thing was Faye, the manager of the footy club camping, who, on our departure the next morning presented us with an amazing bag of homemade goodies for the road; Anzac biscuits, coconut ice, rocky road, apricot balls and another slice. Amazing! So incredibly generous and kind of her. And also delicious. Thankyou Faye.

And so we are heading east fairly fast now. The kids have just about had it. We have done a lot of driving over the last week or so, stopping anywhere only one night and so when we came across this most beautiful campspot on the Murray River at Cadell, we all wanted to just stop for a bit and stay for more than one night. So we did just that. A day hanging around the river, watching the bird life, watching vessels pass on the river, very nice. A magnificent spot to camp, thanks to the Cadell community for providing such a facility. They even lit the cliffs up at night for us..

And dinner in the camp oven over the campfire, followed by copious amounts of toasted marshmellows and chocolate..

The kids are longing for home home now, this morning we saw the first 'Sydney' road sign (1035km). Not far at all really, considering what we have already done. In Mildura we managed to lose ourselves for a good hour in the biggest and trickiest maze we have ever done. The Maze, together with some time at the funpark, and also an awesome visit (actually two visits on consecutive days) to the Mildura Aquatic Centre (with WAVE pool!) and then Dominos Pizza for dinner went quite some way in restoring the kids lagging spirits.

NSW here we come.

The Australian Bite

Esperance was our last port of call in WA before we started the long trek east, in the direction of home, around the Australian Bite, across the Nullarbor. Sickness hit us. The boys fell one by one, first Kai, then Sol, then Cem. Kai started it all by insisting on sleeping near naked with all his end windows wide open.... and the nights are COLD. Only Ayla and I remained well, and carted our sick passengers across the Nullarbor. Go Girls!! Unfortunately Sol was sick on his 10th birthday, the first day on the Nullarbor. Here is the long haired lout, with his rosy cheeks trying to be cheery at his birthday lunch at Balladonia. He particularly requested this type of birthday cake and I was able to find one at the delicious French bakery in Esperance.

We didn't stop much along the Nullarbor, we just drove. Belladonia was a bit interesting (although it is literally just a roadhouse) because in 1979 American Skylab had crash landed in this area scattering debris from Esperance to Belladonia. Jimmy Carter, the US president at the time, actually made a phonecall to the roadhouse to apologise, but this did not stop them from apparently getting a $400 fine for littering. Here is a piece of Skylab in the small museum there.

We crossed the South Australian border and farewelled WA. Quarantine check first at Ceduna way after the border, so we ate up all our apples and bananas as we drove, unfortunately we had to hand over all our lemons.

This image probably looks very familiar, the beautiful Bunda Cliffs of the Great Australian Bite.

From Ceduna, we headed onto Streaky Bay and booked into the caravan park there for one night so our sick passengers could have some comforts such as power, showers, common room with TV and camp kitchen where we cooked pancakes and baked cookies for dinner because thats all anyone felt like eating.